At the present time, identification devices, such as wristbands or the like, are widely used in hospitals or in crowd control situations, such as concerts, amusement parks, or the like, to identify patients or individuals and provide information regarding patients or individuals. In addition, such wristbands may be utilized in penal and similar institutions for the purpose of inmate control.
Initially, such wristbands were confined to providing the bare minimum of the patient's name and, possibly, of the patient's illness. In crowd control situations, the wristband was utilized to indicate the admissibility of the individual wearing the band and, frequently, the duration, by color indication, of the attendance period of the person wearing the wristband.
Recently, identification wristbands have been provided with encoded information in the form of bar codes or the like whereby considerable additional information about the individual wearing the wristband can be ascertained, including, in the case of a hospital patient, relevant data such as medication, the patient's condition, or the like.
In crowd control situations, the wristbands can be utilized to provide such data as the amount of money or payments unexpended by the individual wearing the wristband.
Thus, in amusement parks or the like, the wristband, by the use of encoded information, can control the admission of the individual wearing the band to specific attractions. As each attraction is assessed against the wristband, the sum of money remaining for expenditures is reduced.
In utilizing such wristbands, various types of bar code readers are provided to the relevant staff which read the bar codes to determine, in case of patient care, therapeutic measures, such as administering medication or various other services for the patient. In the case of crowd control, such as in amusement parks, the reader charges the wristband for the entry to the specific attraction desired by the wristband wearer.
While the use of bar codes or other encoded materials has constituted a considerable advance over prior imprinted information, once the bar code has been applied to the identification wristband, particularly in the case of a hospital patient, alteration of the information on the wristband entails the substitution of a new or companion band. In addition, because of physical limitations, the information imparted by bar codes or the like is necessarily limited.
A possible solution which would overcome the limitations of identification wristbands which are bar-coded or provided with similar encoded imprinted material would be to provide an RF circuit in the wristband which would incorporate a semi-conductor circuit with logic, memory, and an RF circuit connected to an antenna capable of storing and dispensing information so that a staff member carrying a transponder could query the RF circuit of the wristband to elicit a wide spectrum of information not presently available in conventional wristbands.
Unfortunately, available RF circuits are relatively expensive and, since conventional wristbands are disposable after use, such circuits would have to be discarded if they were integral components of the wristband.